The founding fathers established the United States Constitution to maintain a strong government. In order for the United States government to flourish it is vital for the state and city to work in unison establishing policies that are beneficial for society. The United States maintains a political system, in which the nation derives its’ power from the state. In the book New York City Politics: Governing Gotham, Berg discusses the function of the state and federal government in relationship with the city. Although the City can organize their own government, they are dependent on the state and federal government.
Prior to the 1800’s, the city acted without any involvement from the state. However, because the city began to expand its’ powers
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Since the state was liable for the cities actions, they intervened to help the city in recovering from the financial crisis. New York state provided the city with financial assistance that caused the city to rely on the state. Initially, the state instituted the Municipal Assistance Corporation that tried to helped the city pay off its’ debt by selling bonds. But this project was unsuccessful and the state quickly implemented the Emergency Financial Control Board to oversee fiscal events, until a plan was devised to help the city distribute services to the citizens. The Financial Control Board program still exists within today’s society and meets annually to prevent the city from experiencing another fiscal catastrophe. The local governments still have the authority to Unlike the state’s relationship with the city, the federal government maintains a different alliance with the city. The federal government has no constitutional responsibility to monitor the utilities that the city distributes to …show more content…
The federal government response to the fiscal crisis based on political decision making, similar to how they responded to the September 11th attacks. The link between the federal government and the city has progressed, but peaked in the late 1970’s. This affected the city’s ability to distribute the utilities for individuals. However, the New Deal sparked local cities to advance their relationship with the federal government separate from the state legislature. The federal government’s goal was to issue financial assistance in major cities. Statistics reveal that between 1970’s and the 1980’s there was approximately a seven hundred percent increase in the amount of grants that the federal government provided for the cities. These categorical grants were the predominant type of funding. In this period federal earnings encompassed twelve percent of the city’s budget. Thus, local governments became dependent on federal funds. Initially, the categorical grants were intended for people who were residents of low income areas. But there were no mandates established to ensure that the money was being targeted to individuals who were poor. They enabled the company giving the money to a particular party to determine how the money will be used. Often this led to conflicts because the local government began to have concerns about provisions being attached to the
The fourth chapter of City Politics by Dennis R. Judd & Todd Swanstrom covers the rise of "Reform Politics" with many local governments during the first half of the 1900s as a way to combat the entrenched political machines that took control of many large city governments in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Over the course of the chapter, Judd & Swanstrom quickly cover the history of the "reform movement" with different examples of how the reform movement affected city politics in different areas.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, several factors contributed to the growth and expansion of cities in the United States. The 1850s saw a fantastic peak in the immigration of Europeans to America, and they quickly flocked to cities where they could form communities and hopefully find work1. The rushing industrialization of the entire country also helped to rapidly convert America from a primarily agrarian nation to an urban society.
As industrialization caused cites to grow in leaps and bounds, political bosses started to take power. As the 19th Century came to a close, almost every sizable city had a political boss, or at least had one rising to power. Tons of immigrants from every part of the world began to pour into the major cities. Cities have had diversity in the past, but the huge diversity of the American cities was unique.
Assistance was provided to lower class citizens through New Deal programs. Aid was given to farmers and poor citizens through acts and agencies such as the Rural Electric Act, Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Taylor Grazing Act (“New” 9; Young 159). This government support helped alleviate the poverty resulting from the Great Depression. Over time, these programs assisted in forming a middle class, lowering the poverty rate and allowing a better quality of living for American citizens. In addition to providing assistance to the lower class, the New Deal formed government entitlement programs. Service organizations, such as Social Security and Financial Aid, were created (Brinkley 597). These types of programs influenced Americas relationship with the government, by forming a stronger federal power willing to help the lower class, many of which are still intact today. Branching off these original entitlement programs, there are many government agencies and programs that aim to aid and support the lower class. Food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, Disability, unemployment compensation, and benefits provided for Veterans are all governmentally funded organizations that assist the lower class population (“Budget” 2). The New Deal influenced the relationship between citizens and the American government today by
Federalism plays an integral part in the growth and development of the United States of America and is a key factor in determining the basis of power in this country. Clearly, the term federalism can be understood in many different ways pertaining to each person's view, but it can be more broadly defined in terms of the separation between the state and federal government. Thomas E. Patterson defines federalism as, “the division of sovereignty, or ultimate governing authority, between a national government and regional (that is, state) governments. Each directly governs the people and derives its authority from them” (Patterson 74). He then goes on to give a more basic definition with, “American Federalism is basically a system of divided powers” (Patterson 74). But federalism is more than just a word with a definition. It is hard wired into the constitution because the framers knew how important this division of power would be for the development of America and to ensure power would ultimately reside with the people.
This made the government spend a lot of their money on programs to help recover all the lost jobs and to give businesses the confidence to spend money also. When the businesses saw that the government was actually willing to spend money it gave the business owners confidence to spend their money. Once the money started circulating around the economy would start slowly growing. The New Deal Programs were diverse relief schemes such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Works Administration and the National Recovery Administration (NRA).
Thomas Jefferson believed that states could best govern the domestic matters within its state, but a strong Central Government is needed as well to deal with foreign affairs and to keep the country strong as a unified nation. "While smaller governments [states] are better adapted to the ordinary objects of society, larger confederations more effectively secure independence and the preservation of republican government."-Thomas Jefferson to the Rhode Island Assembly, 1801. What Thomas Jefferson was saying in this quote is that small governments like our state and our towns are the ones best fit to deal with the concerns of the people. In turn helping the people live the best and happiest lives possible. Which is the reason we have government.
When states try to find ways to restrain from non-essential areas, unfunded federal mandates are at the top of the list. These mandates often force state and local governments to spend much more than necessary on everything from medical care to welfare to road building. A complex web of federal programs bind together the tree treasuries of the local, state, and federal government. As much as 25 percent of state budgets now comes from the federal government, and up to 60 percent of some state budgets is spent on joint federal-state programs.
The evolution of power gained by the Federal government can be seen in the McCuloch versus Maryland (1819) case. This case des...
During the New Deal period of 1933-1939 the national government took control of the United States’ economy. Our economy was failing and we needed a strong central government to take over in our time of need. Congress passed acts that created new federal agencies and programs proposed by the president in hopes of strengthening our economy. Some of the important programs were the Federal Housing Administration, the Civilian...
It is the role of the U.S government to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens; this includes aiding its citizens in acquiring and maintaining regular and adequate housing. Therefore, the government should take on the main responsibility of dealing with the homelessness crisis in New York, even though the society and social service providers also play a role in reducing the homeless levels in New York City. However, instead of solving the homelessness issue in New York, they have caused a rise in the homelessness level.
The ordinary people affected by the crisis experienced many forms of mass unemployment. As the workforce began to panic the anxiety grew stronger. The stress of unemployment and anxiousness forced thus individuals to look to the government for the answers. Governments quickly responded to the anxiety by raising taxes. Which in turn only seemed to make matters worse. The United States attempts at restoring the nation with confidence failed. Some believe that the main reason being that the United States had developed an enormous economy of mass production, but the larger picture consisted of analyzing more than the mass production. Instead there was a problem arising. How would the nation survive with a population of mass production and a decrease in consumption became the main question being analyzed. As the stock market crashed and the United States economy began to as well the U.S. government began to focus on the idea of every nation for themselves.
Each of these aspects apply to different people and are funded by different groups. The New Deal occurred in 1933, when 13 million American workers lost their jobs. As a result of the massive job loss, thousands of workers demanded union recognition, unemployed Americans demanded food and shelter, and farmers demanded higher processing of their goods. Federally funded jobs and social welfare programs to help the poor were set up by President Roosevelt in order to please the demands of the American people.
At one point in our nation's history the system of the government didn't work out as planned. So, through compromise and great effort, the national government and the state government worked together to share power and to make the nation function properly. This system has power to the government which is between the national government and the states, this is called federal system or Federalism. This system allows each state deal with its needs in their own way.
Krueckeberg, Donald A. (ed.) 1983. Introduction to Planning History in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research.